We have a bit of a dilema, in that we have to say god awfully badly applied atrex on every ceiling throughout our entire cottage, some worse looking than others but all reqiring attention in some way or other, with next to no tradesmen/women in this area either willing to or able to rectify this we want to at least try to do something significant about it ourselves?

After a 280 ml roundtrip to obtain bags of artex (the closest available diy store) we have finally in our possesion 3x bags of artex, and the tools, sealer etc to tackle this our first major diy task, nothing like challenging oneself is there?

We have previously with a reasonable degree of success completed, tiling, plumbing and other tasks throughout or previous tenancy whilst im disabled and thus cant now physically do a lot of the more physical tasks i know roughly what im doing and between my partner/carer im sure we shall manage with a reasonably successfull end product (at least we sincerly hope so)

So what we seek for now then is the abriviated artexers bible basically "dummies guide to artexing" so as we can be forwarned or procedures, pitfalls and likely issues with this task in hand, we have the correct artex made sealer rather than pva after reading many issues caused by its use? we are also aware of the possibility of there being asbestos in among the original artex but doubt this is the case, we dont however know what type it is as our property has only been in HA ownership for about five years before which it was privately owned and prior to that council owned and sold, we have asked the council who have no permission granted for such works whilst in their ownership so its likely to of been done whilst in private ownership, non the less so as to be sure, is there anyway to tell? like is its structure, look or feel different maybe? so we could put to rest any fears as it does worry me as i suffer more than enough health issues that i have not caused without putting myself in any danger.

Any and all help, advice and/or guidance would be most appriciated of course

We have been made aware of this however we are far from proficient enough to get a good enough plaster finish if we were there surely would be no point in re-artexing surely? the essence being its supposed to be a rough finish which suits our ability or not as it happens to get a reasonable finish full-stop.

Surely if the pattern will likely to be seen through the original would it not be best to roughly flatten the worst of the original pattern then?

if the patten is heavy. and it is artex that is on your ceilings then you can use a steamer on it and scraper to get most or all of it off.you will have to score first to let the steamer work. the same sort of steamer that you use for getting off wallpaper.